Day 118 (15 August) - Mile 1468.42 - 1486.94

Ash Camp Campground to Campsite at mile 1486.94

Another night of trying to sleep with a cold. Luckily one nostril was clear most of the night so I could sleep. I awoke right at 6:00 AM quickly packing up so I could go enjoy the outhouse. There aren't any picnic tables at this campground (bummer), but the outhouse is in pretty good shape.

While eating breakfast (a brownie bar) I saw Tim driving down the road. I went up to meet him and was happy that he had no problems finding us. The good news is that he thinks he can meet us 15 miles up the trail meaning a 15 mile slack pack. The bad news is that he didn't have time to scout out the road to ensure he can make it there. After much discussion it was determined that the chance he can make it to us is over 95%, so we decided to take the chance and slack pack. He did make me take my puffy jacket in case he can't get to us and we have to spend the night without our tent and sleeping bag.

Before leaving for the hike I decided to use the outhouse one more time and saw this scorpion on the doorstep:

Scorpion...cool!

After loading our gear into the 4Runner and packing only what we need for the next 15 miles, we were ready to hike just before 8:30 AM.

Ready to hike.

This slack pack couldn't have come at a better time. We are all pretty tired having hiked everyday since leaving Lake Tahoe. Plus, I have this cold, Share Bear has painful blisters on her heels, and Brad's ankles are hurting. Luckily, in about 30 miles we will be in Mount Shasta taking our first zero in 22 days.

The start of the hike today we crossed McCloud River the easy way:

Bridge over McCloud River

One hour into the hike we came across this PCT sign pointing the direction of Interstate 5, the location of Mount Shasta and our zero. At this point we are 27.65 miles away.

PCT sign of the day...Interstate 5, yes please

Most of the day we spent under cover in a pine forest. We did pop out a couple of times to a view like this:

Morning view.

The trail today was quite overgrown with bushes and trees. Here is Brad breaking through:

Brad breaking through.

I thought this was a cool rock formation as Share Bear hiked past it:

Share Bear hiking ahead.

We stopped for lunch around 1:30 PM just 3.76 miles from our planned rendezvous point with Tim. We planned on meeting him between 4-4:30 PM, so we have plenty of time. Here I am relaxing during our lunch break:

Self-portrait "Lunch break"

After lunch we continued on and came across this wooden bridge over Squaw Valley Creek:

Cool bridge.

Just past the bridge we heard a fake owl call and knew it was Tim.  He was up above us on a switchback. He is feeling better from his cold, now I hope to be.

We hiked up the 0.75 miles to the 4Runner...he made it after all and said the dirt road was pretty good all the way.

Good old 4Runner.

The bad news is that Brad decided to go back to town with Tim. His ankles hurt a lot and he has a really bad blister on his pinky toe. He hopes an extra zero day will help with his healing so he can join us out of Mount Shasta.

So, Share Bear and I loaded up our bags and took off. We will hike 3.86 more miles today to a campsite leaving just 11.74 miles for us to hike tomorrow to Interstate 5.

Of course the entire 3.86 miles were up hill making us climb 1,723 feet, but we were able to make it to camp before 7:00 AM giving us plenty of time to make camp and eat before sunset.

And what did I eat? Well, Tim was nice enough to bring me some cheesy bean and rice burritos from Taco Bell, so I packed them in for dinner...AWESOME!!

Awesome camp dinner.

After dinner I was pretty happy to be in my tent just after 8:00 PM while it was still light outside.

Lying in my tent.

And can you believe that it is just now 9:00 PM and I am done with blogging for the night so I can get my much loved 9 hours of sleep tonight. Now if I can just wake up without this cold...

Until tomorrow...

Home for the night.